7-Eleven Pushing Back Against Panhandlers
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DALLAS (CBSDFW.COM) - Convenience store chain 7-Eleven is pushing back against pushy panhandlers and doing more to protect customers from aggressive confrontations. Security guards were called late Tuesday to keep an eye on 10 downtown Dallas stores during the overnight hours.
Dallas resident and business owner Tanya Ragan started a campaign to highlight the panhandler problem, posting pictures of vagrants hanging around outside of the downtown Dallas convenience stores. "It's been bad," Ragan said. "It's been escalating over the past several months."
Many other residents agree that the panhandlers are getting out of control, and dangerous. During an interview for this story, CBS 11 News encountered a woman asking for money. She soon became very angry and started screaming obscenities. "When people feel that being aggressive will get the money, it accelerates the behavior," Ragan explained.
Ragan applauded the move by 7-Eleven to increase store security.
A downtown safety patrol conducted a recent study and found that there were more than 19,000 public nuisance offenses last year -- things like panhandling and people caught sleeping in public. Police issued more than 4,600 citations.
Phillip Kingston is the Dallas city councilman who represents most of the downtown area. He was shocked to see the growing problem in this growing community. "It has gotten significantly worse in the last nine months," he said.
Meanwhile, in a statement issued by 7-Eleven, the company hoped that additional security guards would not be necessary one day -- but promised that they will be there as long as panhandling is a problem. The changes started this week and, so far, the store clerks are happy with the extra help.
